Family History Writing Challenge Day 23 - Bohemia

Jan Krbec , born Drazic #27, district Tyn nad Vitavou Bohemia, and his wife Marie Honsa, born Radetice #51, district Milevsko, Bohemia, had a son Jan who was born 27 April 1853 in Radetice #51, district Milevsko, Bohemia.  In 1877, Jan married Barbora Sunka, born Mar 1853, of the same village.

In 1887, Jan and Barbora Krbec left their home in Drazicich, Tabor, Bohemia and traveled to Bremen, Germany with their son Frank, age five. and ten month old daughter Rose.  In Bremen, they boarded the ship Elbe and arrived in New York on 24 May 1887.  According to the ship manifest, their destination was Chicago, Illinois.

They did in fact go to Chicago where according the voter registration rolls Jan Krbec had become a naturalized citizen and voted in 1892.  Daughter Marie died on 2 April 1891 at five years of age. 

In the 1900 Federal Census, Jan was a day laborer and son Frank was a machinest.  Further information from the census reveals that Barbora has had four children only one of which was currently living.  Further research will be done to locate those children in the Catholic Church records for St Procopius Church where they were members.  They were renting a home at 270 Allport.

In the 1920 census a widowed Barbora is living in the home of her son Frank and his wife Rose.

There is much more research to be done on this line.  The name Krbec is the last name of the adoptive father of my son-in-law.  I will be revisiting this family in the next several days.

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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Semi-Random Research

Randy's suggestions for this week's entertainment are:
1)  We're going to do a little bit of Semi-Random Research tonight...

2)  Go to your family tree database of choice (you know, like RootsMagic, Reunion, Ancestry Member Tree), and determine who the very last person on your list of names is.

3)  What do you know about this person based on your research?  It's OK to do more if you need to - in fact, it's encouraged!

4)  How are you related to this person, and why is s/he in your family tree?

5)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blogpost, or in a Facebook Status post or Google+ Stream post.

The last person on my name list is Mary Zotnorn who is person number 928 in my data base of 3132 individuals.  Mary was born about 1858 in Bohemia and her mother's name was Katharina.  That is all I knew about Mary except that she was one of my son-in-law's Great-great-grandmothers.  Since doing a little more research on her at ancestry.com today, I know a lot more about her.  Mary Kotorour (not Zotnorn) was born 26 May 1860 to Frantisek Kotorour and Katarina Kubat.  She married Jan (John F) Bozovsky 2 Sep 1877 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.
In the 1900 census she is listed with husband John and children John, Mary, Rose, and Antonia.  Mary and John's daughter Rose married Frank Krbec in Chicago on 25 April 1904.  Rose and Frank had a son Frank Valentine who married Anna Angeline Franke Mann and in turn had a son John who with his wife Pamela Coan adopted Scott Allen.   Her widowed mother Katrina was also living in the household at the time of the 1900 census.  Mary died in Chicago on 18 Feb 1911 and is buried in St Adelbert's Cemetery.  I'm sure there is more to be found and corrected.

Mary is in my tree because my son-in-law is adopted and we are tracing his adoptive parents trees for the grandchildren.  Actually the grandchildren have visited the little village in the Czech Republic that their Krbec ancestors came from.

Krbec of Bohemia - Surname Saturday

In 1877 Jan Krbec and Barbora Sunka were married in Drazicicih Tabor Bohemia. Jan and Barbora immigrated to the United States in 1887, arriving in New York on the Elbe on May 21. Traveling with Jan and Barbora were their children, Frank age 5 and Marie age 10 months. They had traveled from Bohemia to Austria and boarded the ship in Bremen, Germany. Their plan was to remain in Chicago, Illinois. Their journey completed, Barbora and Ian spent their lives in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Krbec is a relatively uncommon name and there were only about a half a dozen families with that surname in Cook County, Illinois at the time of the 1900 census.

Researching the Cook County birth and death records, provided the original village of birth for Ian Krbec. The church records are digitized online at http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz. Using the records I was able to find the christening record for Ian Krbec in Chrastany, Bohemia in 1852.

Using a combination of Czech and Illinois records, I should be able to construct a timeline for the Krbec family and determine if Ian was connected to any of the other Krbec families. The search should prove interesting and fruitful since I have also discovered which parish the Krbecs belonged to in Cicero. Thanks to familysearch.org those records are also digitized online.